VENEZUELAN national Flora Gloria Hurtado Gongora was on her way to court yesterday to answer fraud charges when she was fatally shot.

And investigating officers are now working on two motives surrounding Gongora’s murder.

According to police reports, 45-year-old Gongora was shot dead outside the Green Oaks Hotel located along the Old Saddle Road in San Juan before 9 a.m yesterday.

Gongora’s body was pulled out of a drain right in front of the hourly rated hotel, police reports said. She was shot four times.

On May 1 this year Gongora was among three people facing fraud charges arising out of a scam where more than $100,000 was stolen from rigged automated teller machines (ATM) across the country belonging to RBTT bank.

In that court matter another Venezuelan national, Jose Isidro Murillo, pleaded guilty to all the charges. He was sentenced to three years’ hard labour for the ATM scam.

Gongora and the third person, Henry Thomas, both pleaded not guilty to the charges. They were each granted bail with a surety in the sum of $80,000 to be approved by a Clerk of the Peace.

Gongora was headed to the Port of Spain First Magistrate’s Court yesterday to answer those charges when she was shot dead.

And as investigating officers search for a motive for the killing two theories are being actively pursued.

In the first theory, investigating officers believe that Gongora was killed by one of two Venezuelan hitmen who landed on in this country recently, a police source said.

Investigators probing this angle believe that Gongora’s death may have been directly linked to the court matter.

However in the second theory being pursued homicide detectives believe that Gongora’s death was just a simple matter of a robbery gone awry, a police source said.

According to reports from eyewitnesses to the incident, Gongora was seen struggling with a man who tried to grab her purse.

During this struggle the man pulled out a gun and shot Gongora, police said.

Gongora died on the spot. Her purse was recovered at the scene.

During the fraud case Gongora’s address was listed as Carenage, but police said she had been staying at Green Oaks, and left her room there moments before she was shot.

The murder toll now stands at 332 for the year.